University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina Chapel HilliStock

The University of North Carolina (UNC) is facing mounting criticism over a course titled “The Conflict over Israel/Palestine” to be taught in the fall and in subsequent semesters by a PhD student who does not believe Israel has a right to exist, according to a report by advocacy group Voice4Israel of North Carolina.

On July 19, 2021 in response to Ben & Jerry’s announcement that they would no longer be selling their products in Judea and Samaria, Kylie Broderick tweeted “All of Israel is occupied Palestinian territory.”

She also tweeted on May 17, 2021, “Everyone at UNC has a responsibility to step up for Palestinians and Palestine. Start following BDS immediately. Boycott Israeli products. Investigate UNC’s investments. Agitate in your departments for Palestinian liberation. We win when we do this together” while posting a BDS link for a guide on what products to boycott.

Another in a series of tweets from December 8, 2020 by Broderick stated, “As an anti-imperialist teaching the modern Middle East, I find it difficult to do role-playing games in class. The ‘2-sides’ of most subjects we cover are [between] colonizers/imperialists and oppressed native peoples” and “I don’t ever want to encourage them to believe there is reason to take on good faith the oppressive ideologies of American and Western imperialists, Zionists and autocrats.”

She also tweeted that boycotting Israel is “the only choice” and that called on “university Middle East academic programs and centers” to issue “solidarity statements… to their Palestinian colleagues” and in a second accompanying tweet referred to “Zionist lynch mobs.”

Multiple Jewish groups and leaders have called on the university to address their concerns with the course.

“Of huge concern is that UNC has chosen an instructor who promotes the view that Israel should not exist to teach a course on Israel this fall. The instructor has publicly demanded that ‘everyone at UNC...boycott Israeli products’ and has stated her view that students should be taught to reject Zionism,” stated Voice4Israel of North Carolina.

The organization sent a letter to UNC administrators Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert A. Blouin, and Board Chair David L. Boliek Jr. stating that "UNC students deserve an unbiased education that encourages and challenges them to form their own opinions, not to be simply indoctrinated against Israel.”

“By continuing to assign anti-Israel and anti-Zionist instructors and professors to teach students about Israel, UNC is sending a message that continued bias, demonization, and hostility towards Israel is both desired and expected on campus,” they wrote.

“This is not a free speech issue. This is an issue of severe anti-Israel faculty bias at UNC. Please end this academic bias and hostility and make UNC a tolerant campus for all students," they added.

Marion Robboy, UNC Board of Advisors member for to the UNC Center for Jewish Studies, also sent a similarly intentioned letter to 15 university leaders.

“Broderick’s very public anti-Israel positions — including her demand that all of UNC engage in a boycott of Israel — will make it exceedingly difficult if not impossible to have open and fair classroom discussions … UNC cannot have students, when expressing their opinions, worry that the teacher’s hostility directed at them may well affect their grades,” she wrote, calling Broderick’s tweets “highly inflammatory and offensive.”

On August 6, Hillel issued a statement about the course, saying that they “fear that students who support and have a connection with Israel will be unwelcome or unsafe in this class, impinging on their academic freedom.”